The Spirit of St. Andrews [Hardcover]

Alister MacKenzie (Author), Robert Tyre Jones Jr. (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 1995

There’s no question that Dr. Alister MacKenzie was one of the best golf course architects in the history of the game. Augusta National, Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point—among many other famous layouts—are proof of that fact.

In the mid-1990s, MacKenzie’s lost golf manuscript, written a year before his death in 1933, was found and finally published as The Spirit of St. Andrews.

Even all these years later, MacKenzie’s thoughts on such topics as the golf swing, rules, great courses and holes, and golfers are interesting and intuitive.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1933 Alister MacKenzie put on paper his considerable golfing knowledge. One of the game's most revered course designers--he conceived Augusta National, site of the Masters, and served the hallowed links of St. Andrews for years as consulting architect--MacKenzie synthesized his thoughts on golf's history, its equipment, its personalities, and his musings on what makes a great course and what makes a great hole, into a manuscript that lay hidden for more than 60 years. Finally available, it stands as one of the most courtly and cultivated treatises ever written on the royal and ancient game. His concepts of the psychology of design are as apt today as when he penned them, and his anecdotal spinnings on his own golfing trials should inspire anyone who's thought of picking up a club.

From the Publisher

"If golf has had a true renaissance man, surely it was Alister MacKenzie....MacKenzie's prose sparkles as much today as it did 60 years ago."
--GOLF Magazine

"The Spirit of St. Andrews may have been written sixty years ago, but much of its content is timeless. MacKenzie never minces words, and his views on golf, golfers, and courses remind us that he was not only a brilliant architect but one of the most provocative characters the game has produced."
--George Peper, Editor-in-Chief, GOLF Magazine

"Alister MacKenzie believed that the chief object of a golf architect should be 'to imitate beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from Nature herself.' He showed us the way in this regard....I am lucky to have the book in my library."
--Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons

"In golf-as-religion circles, [the publication of The Spirit of St. Andrews] might be likened to the discovery of another Dead Sea scroll....It's a large dose of common sense about what makes a golf course interesting and fun."
--Wall Street Journal
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886947007
• ISBN-13: 978-1886947009
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it and read it now, September 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit of St. Andrews (Hardcover)

Great read and great sketches. When asked how he got such interesting, hilly, contoured greens, Dr. M once said, "Employ the biggest fool in the village and instruct him to make the greens all flat"

Scary how much of the comments written in the early part of the century apply to today's game and course design. Once section about the controversy of the day re: limiting the flight of the ball is exaclt what we are hearing nearly again 70 years later

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Course Architecture and Maintenance, July 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit of St. Andrews (Paperback)

MacKenzie shares his timeless, and oft forgotten, philosophy on how a course should be designed - for the golfer, but not by the golfer; shaped and, when necessary reworked, by the professional architect, not by the whims of a committee; and finally, playable by all who love the game.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece work from one of golf's greatest legends, October 15, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit of St. Andrews (Hardcover)

This book, written in 1933 and never published until 1995 is the greatest find in golf. Entertaining anecdotes, wonderful essays--all of which is incredibly interesting and relevant today. WSJ called it "another Dead Sea scroll" for golfers. The foreward was written by his co-designer at Augusta National Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones, Jr. An incredible discovery that you must read. A true timeless classic. On a scale of 1-10, it is a 12.